Taking chance on Lovejoy paying off for Ducks

ANAHEIM – Many faces on both sides of the contentious collective bargaining negotiations between NHL owners and players proclaimed how they wanted to get hockey out of the board rooms and back on the ice.

Ben Lovejoy was quietly praying for it.

“It was Christmastime last year during the lockout and I had a job interview,” Lovejoy recalled after a recent Ducks practice. “If the season had been canceled, I was done.”

Lovejoy saw himself possibly working in sales for a financial institution. Cooler heads, of course, prevailed back in January and the Ducks would ultimately find a defenseman who took full advantage of a new opportunity.

For a fifth-round pick in 2014, the Ducks got a player who has to this point showed that he can be the useful 20-minute defender the Pittsburgh Penguins didn’t see when they moved him.

It was the New Hampshire native who played a career-high 26 minutes, six seconds in Game 7 against Detroit in the playoffs. It is he who was rewarded with a three-year contract extension worth $3.3 million.

“I was so happy to be back,” Lovejoy said. “I wanted to do anything in my power to come back. I loved playing for (Ducks coach) Bruce (Boudreau) and (assistant coach) Bob Woods. I really feel like I was given an opportunity to show what I could do.

“I wanted to be here as long as I possibly could.”

Boudreau had Lovejoy playing with Cam Fowler throughout the preseason but moved Fowler alongside Francois Beauchemin for the season opener against Colorado.

The results were disastrous as Fowler and Beauchemin were on the ice for four goals against in a 6-1 loss to the Avalanche. At the next practice, Fowler and Lovejoy were back together.

Chemistry matters.

“I feel like Cam and I complement each other well,” Lovejoy said. “He’s a world-class skater. And I feel like I’m not quite at his level but I feel like I can keep up with him.

“My goal as Cam’s d-partner is for him to have a Norris-caliber season. I want him to score 50 points. I want him to be really good defensively.”

“He was never able to crack the top six so he’s always been a seventh (defenseman),” the coach said. “And when you’re a seventh, what you do is you’re nervous when you get in. Because if you make a mistake, you’re back out of the lineup.

“I think when he got in and starting playing regularly, his confidence got up. He started playing like the guy that everyone thought he could be when he first went to Pittsburgh.”

Lovejoy is thrilled to be with a team he feels respects his game and allows him to use all of his skills.

“I told my agent from the very beginning that I didn’t want to hit a home run,” he said. “I wanted to be here. If we could get something even in the ballpark, this is where I wanted to be.

“I’m not a high-profile defenseman. I wasn’t looking forward to going to free agency. I didn’t want to be happier than happy.”

INJURY FEARS ALLAYED

Much of the causes for concern the Ducks had with potential new injuries to some of their forwards were alleviated when Nick Bonino and Mathieu Perreault took part in the optional practice Friday.

Both pronounced themselves ready to play Sunday against Ottawa despite missing the majority of the third period. Bonino was hit in the leg by a shot while Perreault said he was elbowed in the head by the Rangers’ Dan Girardi in the 6-0 win.

Dustin Penner also didn’t play because of a lower-body issue that Boudreau said is day-to-day, which could make him questionable against the Senators.

“I think those guys would have all come back if the score was 3-1 or 2-1 or something like that,” Boudreau said. “But at 6-0, they’re saying let’s not take chances.”

Kyle Palmieri also was back at practice after sitting out Thursday night due to an upper-body injury suffered in Sunday’s victory over Winnipeg.